‘What, do you know who I am?’ said the domestic sharply.
‘I know you, by your by-word,’ answered the other; ‘What, have you forgot little Sam Skelton, and the brock in the barrel?’
‘No, I have not forgotten you,’ answered the acquaintance of Sam Skelton; ‘but my orders are peremptory to let no one up the avenue this night, and therefore’—
‘But we are armed, and will not be kept back,’ said Nanty. ‘Hark ye, fellow, were it not better for you to take a guinea and let us in, than to have us break the door first, and thy pate afterwards? for I won’t see my comrade die at your door be assured of that.’
‘Why, I dunna know,’ said the fellow; ‘but what cattle were those that rode by in such hurry?’
‘Why, some of our folk from Bowness, Stoniecultrum, and thereby,’ answered Skelton; ‘Jack Lowther, and old Jephson, and broad Will Lamplugh, and such like.’
‘Well,’ said Dick Gardener, ‘as sure as there is savour in salt, and scent in rosemary, I thought it had been the troopers from Carlisle and Wigton, and the sound brought my heart to my mouth.’
‘Had thought thou wouldst have known the clatter of a cask from the clash of a broadsword, as well as e’er a quaffer in Cumberland,’ said Skelton.
‘Come, brother, less of your jaw and more of your legs, if you please,’ said Nanty; ‘every moment we stay is a moment lost. Go to the ladies, and tell them that Nanty Ewart, of the JUMPING JENNY, has brought a young gentleman, charged with letters from Scotland to a certain gentleman of consequence in Cumberland—that the soldiers are out, and the gentleman is very ill and if he is not received at Fairladies he must be left either to die at the gate, or to be taken, with all his papers about him, by the redcoats.’
Away ran Dick Gardener with this message; and, in a few minutes, lights were seen to flit about, which convinced Fairford, who was now, in consequence of the halt, a little restored to self-possession, that they were traversing the front of a tolerably large mansion-house.